Blog Posts: Alexander H. French (Alex)

On April 4, 2015, a North
Charleston Police Officer shot and killed Walter Scott. Michael Shlager, the
responding officer, reported that he pulled Scott over for a broken tail light.
Scott fled on foot and Shlager pursued. Shlager claimed that Scott grabbed
Shlager’s Taser and that Shlager shot Scott in
self-defense.
A bystander’s video showed a conflict far different than Officer Shlager’s
report. The video shows Officer Shlager shooting
an unarmed Walter Scott in the back as Walter Scott ran away. The video also shows
the officer walk back to where the scuffle occurred, pick an object off of the
ground and drop it near Scott’s
body,
many believe this unidentified object was Shlager’s Taser. The sad case of
Walter Scott and Michael Shlager shows both the growing importance of video
footage as evidence and as a means to hold police officers accountable for
their misdeeds.

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